In Copenhagen, people spend 52 minutes in walking on the street which is 17 minutes in Bhubaneswar on average barring those elites who walk inside parks or treadmills for 40 to 60 minutes as part of healthy living. The poor labourers walk 20 to 45 minutes and sometimes even 90 minutes.
These figures only prove Bhubaneswar is still lagging behind some of world’s best cities meant for healthy living or say quality of life. Copenhagen always leads the table among cities while Denmark amongst countries in terms of Human Development Indexes.
As we often know our eureka moments often arrive when we are walking on the street that always ignites human minds with new ideas and innovations. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking”. Similarly, the courage of walking on street generates amongst citizens as well as visitors a collective effort to make city pedestrian friendly.
It is high time Indian cities needed to sync their other infrastructure with seamless walking experience and various amenities to ensure pedestrians are not crashed into vehicles or fall into open manholes. It is an urgent call for cities like Bhubaneswar dreaming of becoming Smart City. It must have a pedestrian first policy in the urban planning, which means intervention needs to be visible across the city and not just in a few patches.
Perhaps if Copenhagen today is amongst world’s best livable cities, then it’s because of 50 years’ efforts that produced good pedestrian environment providing a coherent network of streets and spaces that invites everyone to enjoy the city. On the other side, to be fair enough, it takes over a decade to produce walkable and livable city that Bhubaneswar must keep in mind before migrating into ceremonial festivals or investing in a model street. It means Bhubaneswar must
synchronize it’s city plan with recently adopted Sustainable Goals along with set a target by when temple city would become climate neutral.
Geographically, Bhubaneswar has the right physical characteristics of becoming pedestrian friendly city due to its natural ingredients except those monsoon and summer months, which means special intervention is necessary. Pedestrian streets can be integrated with city infrastructure with the provision of covered skywalk or tree shades to encourage people to walk. Shops could be encouraged in creating umbrella effects like most of the European cities do to avoid rain drops.
Well in recent times, city’s key decision making bodies have shown their interests and dedicated efforts to improve pedestrian infrastructure. Bhubaneswar is somehow fortunate than other cities due to its past interventions of having space earmarked or some passages for walking but some way or the other, most of roadside spaces have been encroached for other purposes than walking. This problem should be sorted out. Second, if Bhubaneswar is serious about becoming walking friendly, then there is an urgent need for immediate intervention of understanding how the road space is shared among motorists, cyclists and pedestrians etc.
Countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands, which have a large cycling population, prioritize the safety and convenience of cyclists over efficient movement of motor vehicles, without compromising with safety and walk quality for pedestrians. What Bhubaneswar needs to do is what exactly many of the leading cities including Stockholm, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Boston etc have done where cars, cyclists and pedestrians have their own paths separated by flower pots. These flower pots and curbs not only protect pedestrians and cyclists from vehicles, but give an identity to the users as well as beautify the city. Bhubaneswar needs to restart its thinking process on how each rupee it is going to spend in next couple of years will improve the quality of life. Will Bhubaneswar leapfrog where Copenhagen is today in next one decadeIJ It is a huge task but nevertheless prompt and consistent planning and fine-tuning are necessary.
(Dr Rout is an urban planner)